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Guides in plain English
Websites, email security and being found online, explained without the jargon, for the people actually running a small business.
Latest guide
Too small to be hacked? The real cyber attack risk for small businesses
Yes, and being small barely changes the odds: the government's own survey counted breaches or attacks at 43% of UK businesses over twelve months, with micro firms at 42% and small firms at 46%. What changes with size is the type of attack, because the one that actually reaches small firms is not a hack at all but a forged or hijacked email, sent either to you or as you to your customers. That common attack depends on your domain's email records being loose, which is exactly what the free check grades in seconds.
More guides
Local SEO for village and market-town businesses
Local SEO is the work of showing up when somebody nearby searches for what you do, and in a village or market town it is smaller and more winnable than the agency guides make it sound. Google sorts local results on relevance, distance and prominence, and distance is on your side when the nearest competitor is a drive away, so the job is a complete Business Profile that names the villages you serve, a website that names them too, and a few recent reviews. That is most of it, and the rest is patience.
Web designer not responding? What to do, and what to check today
Send one dated email setting out exactly what you need and by when, so the silence stops being ambiguous. While you wait for the reply, run the checks that decide how exposed you are: who the registrant on your domain is, whose name the hosting and email accounts are in, and when the last backup ran. If the answers come back wrong, or no reply comes at all, this becomes a recovery job, and it is smaller than it feels: your words, your photos and your web address nearly all survive the move, and the move itself should never be the expensive part.
Business email address: free email or your own domain?
A free email address is rented: the provider's own rules can close it, an ISP address dies with the broadband it is attached to, and you cannot put the records that stop criminals sending email as you on a domain you do not own. An address on your own domain costs about a fiver a month, survives every provider change, and is the only kind you can protect and hand on. Free is fine while you are finding your feet, but set up the domain address before it is printed on invoices, cards and vans.
What the padlock on a website means (and what it doesn't)
The padlock means the connection between your visitor's browser and your website is encrypted: nobody in between can read or change what passes along it. It says nothing about who is at the other end, which is why phishing sites carry padlocks too. Treat it as the floor under a website rather than proof that the business behind it is honest.
Why is my website slow?
A slow website is almost always down to one of three things: images that were never compressed, hosting that is cheap or overloaded, or scripts and plugins the page carries but barely uses. Google's own research found that as mobile load time goes from one second to three, the probability of a visitor bouncing, meaning leaving without going any further, rises by 32%. The fix is rarely a full rebuild; most of the drag sits in things that can be changed without touching the design, once somebody actually looks.
Who owns your domain name (and how to check)
The registrant named on the domain's registration record is its legal owner, and for a lot of UK small business domains that name is not the business itself. A public WHOIS search will not settle it either, because Nominet does not publish the registrant's name or address for a .uk or .co.uk domain without consent; the only reliable check is logging in directly to the account at the registrar and reading who the registrant actually is.
Facebook page vs website: does your small business need both?
For most small businesses the honest answer is both: keep the page for the people who already follow you, and put a simple website of your own where strangers actually look, which is Google. If nobody new ever needs to find you, the page alone really can be enough.
How to get more Google reviews without breaking the rules
The reliable way to get more Google reviews is to ask every customer, one at a time, at the moment the job finishes, with a link straight to the review box. No incentives and no cherry-picking, because both now break consumer law as well as Google's rules.
The free Google listing that does the heavy lifting
For a plumber in Boston or a cafe in Louth, the map results often decide who gets the call before any website has loaded. How to claim the free listing, what to put in it, and the fifteen minutes a week that keep it working.
How much does a website really cost a small business?
Ask three people what a website costs and you can get numbers a hundred times apart. What the 2026 ranges actually mean, what the quotes quietly leave out, and the questions that stop you paying for the same site twice.
Invoice Fraud: The Bank-Detail Switch Scam
An email arrives saying the bank details on an invoice have changed. It reads exactly right, and it is one of the most expensive lies a small business can act on. How the switch works, and the one habit that beats it.
Website For Tradesmen: A Practical Guide For Roofers, Builders, Plumbers And Electricians
Most customers now check you out online before they call, even after a recommendation. Here's what a tradesman's website needs to do to earn the job.
The Small Business Website Security Checklist
Nine things worth checking on a small business website, in the order they actually matter. Most take an afternoon, and the first one takes about ten seconds.
What A Website Actually Does For A Small Business
Most owners are sold a website as a way of getting found. That is the smallest part of what it does. Here is the job it actually performs, and why that job got more important this year.
What Your Website Needs To Look Secure And Trustworthy To Customers
Customers judge whether they trust your business within seconds of landing on your website. Here is what actually builds that trust, and what quietly destroys it.
Why criminals can send email as your business
A fake invoice that reads exactly like yours can cost a customer and a reputation in one morning. Why email makes impersonation easy, and the three records that shut it down.
What is DMARC? A plain-English guide for business owners
DMARC is the instruction you give every inbox about email pretending to be you. What the three policy settings mean, why monitoring mode is not protection, and the rollout order that never loses real mail.